Opinion: Trump’s cuts to global health organizations is a counterproductive way to save money

To the editor: Former Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist is 100% correct when he describes the “domino effect” of cutting international public health funds. (“Trump pushes historic cuts in global health aid, stoking fears of new disease outbreaks and diminished U.S. clout,” April 10)

Jhpiego, an international nonprofit affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, has helped to reduce maternal mortality by 50% in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the developing world. Orphaned children are more likely to be pulled into the criminal elements that supply child soldiers for wars that may cost us hundreds of billions of dollars to combat in the future.

Fiscal conservatives in Congress should stop the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to global health organizations. As an obstetrician and advocate for women and children worldwide, I call on Congress to help increase maternal healthcare worldwide. It is not only the moral and compassionate thing to do, it is also fiscally responsible and strategically necessary.

Howard C. Mandel, MD, Los Angeles

The writer, a Los Angeles County health commissioner, chairs Jhpiego’s international advisory board.

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To the editor: Your article was very informative, thorough and devastating.

The administration’s refusal to contribute to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is particularly galling because back in 2002, Donald Trump and I were on the same honorary committee for the Friends of UNFPA’s “Family of Woman” exhibit in the lobby of the United Nations.

Trump obviously supported UNFPA then. What changed? He caved in to the virulent anti-U.N., anti-family planning faction of the Republican Party.

Jane Roberts, Redlands

The writer is co-founder of the group 34 Million Friends of UNFPA.

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To the editor: I know President Trump prefers to make government smaller, but I think he should make it slightly larger by forming a Department of Unintended Consequences.

Everything he wants to do to make America great again is done at the expense of the rest of the world. In the end, all of these things will come back to hurt us.

Before he acts, he should consult with his new department to learn the long-term consequences. In time he may learn that not only is healthcare complicated, virtually all problems are complicated.

Bob Gould, Palm Desert

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